Path help needed (RT branch)

Discussion about the development of the Assembly workbench.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
Post Reply
mnswamp
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:55 pm
Location: Minnesota
Contact:

Path help needed (RT branch)

Post by mnswamp »

If this is the wrong place, please let me down gently :)

First, I'm a boomer. There, I admit it. Learning FreeCAD has been interesting, frustrating, rewarding, but sometimes I just want to tear out the few hairs I have left... This has been one of those struggles.
I am building a teardrop trailer, and want to CNC the walls (among other parts). The walls are 5ft x 10 ft overall, which is slightly larger than a single sheet of 4x8 plywood. After considerable scratching around, I figured out that I had to cad each of the 4 sections individually, which doesn't seem the most straightforward process. So I made the switch to RT's branch, which *does* allow sectional padding.
Everything was going OK. I _understand_ that I am not using the full potential of the branch. It will take me some time to digest the concepts for linking models - I learned to draft with a triangle and t-square. 3D parametric CAD is a mind altering experience.
But I thought I had it - created the job, moved the bits around to fit in the box, created a profile operation, and then went to simulate it and boom. Crash, no warning, no errors shown. Fortunately the next time thru, I saved everything, and have loaded it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DWaOn8 ... sp=sharing

If someone smarter than me (and that won't take much) could be so kind as to take a look, I'll buy the virtual beer and be forever in gratitude. If I'm totally missing something fundamental, I'd love to know that too.

BTW, running tonight on Win10, FreeCAD-asm3-Daily-Win64-Py3-Qt5-20220111

Many thanks,

marsh
Organizational chaos monkey
President, Twin Cities Paddlesports
BoD, Twin Cities Maker
"Geek by profession, maker by prediliction, coach by avocation, sports-hack by obsession"
chrisb
Veteran
Posts: 53933
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:14 am

Re: Path help needed (RT branch)

Post by chrisb »

That sounds like an issue with the branch. I move the topic to the Assembly forum, where the branch is discussed.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
wsteffe
Posts: 461
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:17 pm

Re: Path help needed (RT branch)

Post by wsteffe »

hello mnswamp.

I looked at the document uploaded by you but what is the problem ? You said it crashed but what do you did when it crashed ?
mnswamp
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:55 pm
Location: Minnesota
Contact:

Re: Path help needed (RT branch)

Post by mnswamp »

Hi,
All it took for me to crash it was to attempt to run the GCode simulator. It took about 3 seconds and crashed.
Organizational chaos monkey
President, Twin Cities Paddlesports
BoD, Twin Cities Maker
"Geek by profession, maker by prediliction, coach by avocation, sports-hack by obsession"
mnswamp
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2021 8:55 pm
Location: Minnesota
Contact:

Solved. Painfully, but solved

Post by mnswamp »

OK, 24 hours later, and I've solved at least a few of my issues.
1. Something in one of the sketches was terminally borked
2. My process was pretty bad
3. Starting from a clean sketch, and using external reference dimensions cut a 4 hour task to about 15minutes to break out the sketches.
4. Once I had the sketches broken out using external dimensions, I still had to copy each, minus the linkage to the master sketch, then pad each individually.
5. Then on to path and creating a job file. It took me a _number_ of attempts at #4 above to get manipulating the stock and models. TBH, this is one of the weirder process flows in FreeCAD. Actually, I spent a couple of weeks trying figure out how to do it in FC. RealThunder's efforts are amazing.
At the end of the day, I have been able to successfully generate gcode for two 5x10 trailer walls split into 3 4x8 sheets of plywood.

Thanks for anyone who perused my original ranting. I do love this tool, but sometimes there's a real desire to go learn vCarve or something else for working in panels.
Organizational chaos monkey
President, Twin Cities Paddlesports
BoD, Twin Cities Maker
"Geek by profession, maker by prediliction, coach by avocation, sports-hack by obsession"
Post Reply